Not a Drop to Drink

If there were a water shortage, the people living in cities with no real water sources of their own would be desperate. In Lynn's world, water has always been scarce to the point that those who have it, guard it with their lives. In Not a Drop to Drink, Mindy McGinnis isn't afraid to show just how dark and cruel the world can be.Lynn and Mother live and survive by themselves. They don't need anyone else. They protect their little pond, gather and store food and wood to get them through the winter, and they shoot anyone who comes close to their water. They have to. In this world, its killed or be killed, and Mother doesn't let anyone get close enough to tip the scales in their favor. When an unfortunate accident leaves Lynn all by herself, she knows she can survive, but she isn't sure she is willing to survive the way her mother always taught her to. When her neighbor, Stebbs, makes contact, Lynn breaks every rule her mother set. She talks to him. Even worse, she agrees to check out the camp of strangers down stream who clearly have no idea what they are doing.Lynn has never had to deal with people, so she doesn't come off as terribly empathetic when she meets Eli. He and his niece Lucy and Lucy's very pregnant mother Neva have been camping and trying to survive, but with the group of dangerous men nearby who took all their food and Neva's refusal to leave the side of the stream, life hasn't been easy. Now Neva is in labor and in trouble. Normally Lynn would have left them to fend for themselves, but Stebbs convinces her that the world isn't always so black and white. When people have more than they need and have the ability to help those who don't, their choices say a lot about them. And so begins Lynn's new life- one where she has to trust people more than she ever has.This was a seriously realistic, interesting post-apocalyptic story that, in my humble opinion, accurately depicts the world we would live in if water became more valuable than money. The descriptions of life in the cities where people are forced to live in poverty, desperately trying to make enough to buy water and the life in the wilds where people with water sources hold onto them fiercely. The descriptions of Lynn and her mother were truly remarkable. A woman with a daughter, surviving all those years alone, they had to become a hardened to the plights of those around them, and McGinnis did a beautiful job of explaining that. I loved that while Lynn grew up being suspicious of everyone and shooting before asking questions, she still had it in her to care about people, like her love for little Lucy. Even giving Stebbs a chance was a huge step for Lynn, and while each step took courage, she was willing to brave new territory.This is a great book for anyone new to the PA genre or someone who already delved into it. It is a very realistic portrait of life after the end of the world as we knew it. The violence is certainly there, as it has to be for this kind of landscape, but it isn't gratuitous. The story is relatively short, about 300 pages, but it is a full and complete story from start to finish with an ending that couldn't be more perfect. The characters certainly suffer some losses, and you see how truly ugly people can be in a world like this, but you will be happy with the course of events that has to take place. I really loved this book, and I will be keeping an eye on McGinnis from now on!

Ahhhh, so many feels for this book! This book got me out of my dreaded reading slump and then some. I loved the world that the author created and it struck me as something that could actually happen in this country. It took a while for the author to build the world sufficiently and explain what happened to the water. Lynn and her mother live in a very remote part of the country. I am still unclear about the state. I just know that it's rural and houses are few and far between. There are people do live in other big cities, but water is highly regulated. The water shortage becomes so severe that water companies won't even maintain the lines anymore. People have to take buckets to certain towns and buy the water themselves. In the bigger cities, there are "population schedules" that prevent people from having too many children. According to the government, they can't spare water for too many people. If you have more children than you are allowed, you get kicked out of the city and have to take your chances in the neighboring rural communities. Lynn and her mother have a pond on their farm and this pond is their only source of water. That makes it a very hot commodity.I loved the character of Lynn. She was a total bad ass and such an awesome character. She is the polar opposite of most female characters. For one thing, she is a better shot than the guy character. She also saved the man a couple of times. Love that. As many ways as Lynn was smart when it came to survival, she was also naive in other ways. Her mother never even taught her about sex so an older male friend had to do it. Lynn has this hard outer shell that makes it hard to care for others. That and the fact that she has had to defend her home and her pond her entire life. Lynn fears every single person that she cones across. She is not afraid to shoot first and ask questions later. Every person who comes close to her property is seen as a threat to her water supply and her home and she isn't afraid to get rid of them.But then Eli, Stebbs and Lucy come into the story. Ahhh, Lucy. She is such a sweet, optimistic little girl and the complete opposite of Lynn. Lynn doesn't want to even take care of her, let alone actually care about the little girl. Before I knew it, Lynn had a family and people she cared about. I loved the burgeoning romance between Eli and Lynn. Eli was from a big city and had no clue how to survive out in the wilderness. The banter between Eli and Lynn was so sweet and made me smile a couple of times. Lynn didn't even know what flirting was so it was cute when he tried to explain that to her. And Stebbs was just like a big, cuddly teddy bear. He was a father figure and he also helped push her to open her heart to Lucy and Eli.Then came a shocking event towards the ending that I did not see coming.I was so devastated that I had to go over that part again just to make sure I read it correctly. Or maybe I was just in shock. My only real issue with this book is that Lynn's reactions to certain events and the ending felt a bit rushed. I wanted more tears, more drama! But looking back on it, it probably would not have made sense for Lynn to react the way I wanted her to. She spent so much of her life protecting her land and her heart. Yes she transformed throughout the novel in a very real way, but she was still Lynn: hard and tough. She did what needed to be done and then moved on. So maybe the author knew what she was doing with that one hmmm?

Water is a hard thing to come by. Lynn as ben lucky enough to grow up next to a pond with her mom teaching her how to purify the water and how to protect it. They keep to their selves and keep all others away from their place. She really doesn't have anyone but her mother and while the life is hard they are surviving. Now from their lookout on the roof they see smoke. Smoke is a bad sign as it means someone is close to them. Lynn will have to use everything she know as well as learn more if she is going to survive. New people coming close is just the beginning of a change coming for Lynn.Lynn is a very smart girl. She doesn't know a lot about interaction with other people as she has only met one other person before. Their neighbor Stebbs is the only person her mom aloud to get close to them. She is strong and she knows what to do. She hates to but she will kill to protect her stuff. I liked her as she wasn't a whiney character and actual had a lot of strength.This is a fantastic book as it was a joy to read from beginning to end. Lynn has so many struggles to face in this book. In the beginning you see what all she has to do to make ends meet and how they get their water. She has to work hard almost every day. When something horrible happens she has to learn more about the world than her mother taught her. She has to learn to open up to strangers and they show her what it is like to love. She knows nothing really about flirting and what it's like to care for someone other than her mother. She also learns she has to take charge and get rid of the men who are moving in on her place. She shows a great strength in someone her age. I have to say the ending is one I did not see coming and while I hated it I also think the author did an amazing job with it. If you enjoy dystopian books this is a must try.

A tight, well-developed story with interesting characters plenty of action. Pumped to read the sequel!

Not a Drop to Drink is Mindy McGinnis's debut novel and tells the story of Lynn, a sixteen year old girl living alone on a homestead in Ohio with her mother. It is set at some point in the future where oil has all but run out and the Earth's supply of fresh drinking water has all but run out. Lynn and her mother defend the small pond on their land by shooting anyone who goes near it. I know!Their self-contained lifestyle is turned upside down when a small group of people settle by the stream a little way away from Lynn's home. The outsiders gradually insinuate themselves with Lynn and her similarly isolated neighbour, Stebbs until their way of life is threatened by a group of men who have settled in the next town over.Lynn develops immensely as a character over the course of the book and goes from being hardened, gun-slinging and totally isolated from human contact to developing a sense of empathy and gaining a small, loyal circle of friends. There is a romantic sub-plot, but it doesn't overwhelm the book and mostly just shows how Lynn starts to develop her humanity.The theme is very much of survival against all odds and there's a really interesting juxtaposition between the city, which we are only told about second hand, where it seems very future dystopia, very military-controlled, people all crammed in together and reminded me slightly of Divergent, and the outer areas, where it is very much a frontier lifestyle, even down to the way people talk. They shoot now and ask questions later and it reminded my a lot of the frontier moons on Firefly.Mindy McGinnis has dropped a few neat little hooks into the story - one of the characters, Lucy, is a natural water diviner and there are rumours that California has its own desalinisation plants - that set things up nicely for the next book which, I understand, is set a decade in the future and tells Lucy's story.The only thing I had an issue with was such a small thing it almost seems inconsequential. *Spoiler Alert* At one point, it is alluded to that Lucy's mother had been raped by the soldiers who arrested her family. I didn't see that there was any reason for this: it did nothing to move the plot along - her subsequent grief and poor mental state could be easily justified by the murder of her husband and stillbirth of her child. Added to the fact that the men threatening Lynn's teeny little settlement are a bunch of rapist whoremongers, it came across as a bit 'All Men Are Rapists'.Honestly, though, that was the only criticism I had. Other than that, it was an extremely well-written book with a really strong female protagonist who didn't need a man to weigh in and rescue her (yay!) and had plenty of evil meanies to hate (boo!).

NOT A DROP TO DRINK est un roman qui me laisse assez mitigé mais qui, malgré tout, m’a plus conquis que déçu.Nous plongeons dans un univers purement dystopique dans lequel lutte pour la survie et ambiance ultra chaotique sont omniprésentes. J’ai ADORÉ le climat de cette histoire. Vraiment, vraiment, vraiment. Ce n’est pas un récit qui est là pour embellir les choses et faire passer la vie des héros pour extrêmement simple et peu douloureuse, bien au contraire. Lynn, Lucie, Eli, Stebbs Neva et Vera traversent des épreuves horribles alors que leurs existences étaient déjà faites de souffrance et de chagrin. On sent bien que l’auteure a voulu créer un cadre hyper réaliste, et cela fonctionne à merveille.Grâce à cela, le rythme est très soutenu et vraiment palpitant. Les actions s’enchaînent et les révélations s’accumulent. L’histoire ne nous accorde réellement aucune minute de répit. On se sent oppressés et on a le cœur serré de la première à la dernière page. Paradoxalement, certaines de nos questions restent sans réponse alors qu’elles sont plutôt importantes. Il me manque pas mal d’explications concernant cet univers futuriste (comment les choses en sont arrivées à un tel point, pourquoi, des détails précis).De plus, bien que ce que vivent les protagonistes que nous rencontrons est véritablement bouleversant et à couper le souffle, je ne suis pas parvenu à m’attacher à eux. On reste assez loin des héros, en fait. La narration à la troisième personne du singulier n’aide pas, en plus. C’était vraiment frustrant. Si l’histoire avait été construite autrement, je pense que j’aurais pu adorer NOT A DROP TO DRINK.La conclusion du livre est vraiment saisissante. Tout s’accélère. Les personnages sont tous poussés dans leurs derniers retranchements et on en prend plein les yeux. Les sacrifices qu’ils font sont énormes, et Lynn m’a totalement pris au dépourvu. Bien que je ne me sois pas identifié à elle, je trouve que c’est une héroïne hors du commun et totalement unique. Je ne peux pas plus vous expliquer le pourquoi du comment de mon avis sur elle sans vous spoiler, mais retenez juste que c’est une personne qui m’a marqué de par son courage et sa rage. Elle est impressionnante.En résumé, NOT A DROP TO DRINK est une lecture plutôt satisfaisante, bien que j’avais plus d’attentes concernant les héros et les explications de l’auteure sur ce monde vraiment déboussolant. A l’inverse, les rebondissements et l’ambiance du récit m’ont vraiment pris aux tripes et m’ont complètement comblé. Je pense me procurer la suite (enfin, le companion novel, plutôt !) très prochainement pour voir ce que Mindy McGinnis a décidé de faire de Lucy et Lynn !

I really haven't fully embraced dystopian fiction for a while, purely because a lot of those reads are very similar and I like unique reads. However, this book has been on my list for a LONG time and I really felt it was time I got back to a genre that I'd like to read more of. This is yet another book that needs to go on the list of 'books I should never have left on the TBR for so long' because it was a really good read, that I enjoyed thoroughly from beginning to end. I've seen so many of McGinnis' books floating around the blogosphere, so I'm glad I finally actually read something of hers!So, the narrative is really good. The plot is gripping, there are plenty of good twists along the way to keep things interesting and I liked the post-apocalypse vibes of the book. It actually felt fairly realistic, all things considered and it was refreshing to read dystopia that focuses on a more 'natural' apocalypse rather than so much government conspiracy or zombie action! The seasons/weather are the greatest threat here, alongside dehydration, feral animals, cholera and of course humans. Lynn was a good MC to read, and it was nice watching her storyline and character develop, especially after Lucy is introduced. I also liked Stebbs a lot, and even Eli because his relationship with Lynn did NOT get in the way at all.I did deduct half a star towards the end. Why? Because those final chapters did feel a teensy bit rushed. Especially after such a slow build-up. In fact, I think pacing is probably the biggest problem in the book, though it really wasn't terrible. It just meant that the events of those last pages came and went very quickly, before I could even fully register what was happening. I'm looking forward to reading book two though, because this is honestly SUCH a good dystopian series and is one I'd thoroughly recommend.

Picked this up on a whim and it was exactly what I needed. A tight story with well developed characters and brilliantly placed twists and turns.